Sunday, February 10, 2013

First Harvest of the Year

It has been pretty quiet around home this winter. I have traveled a bit, but that's about it until now. The sun is getting stronger and the temperatures are starting to warm up. The lettuce I put in the garden late October has been growing lately and ready for the first harvest. It's a couple salads worth.

The first round of early seeds have been started. It is mostly spinach, leaf lettuce, and head lettuce with some wild flowers for the bees thrown in. Most of the seed start won't begin in earnest until March. This year I am starting all the seeds in paper towels in plastic bags placed on the furnace duct work. Once the seeds germinate I am transferring them to soil blocks. So far these have been really simple. My mix is 2 parts starting mix with 1 part manure and enough water to hold everything together. The germinated seeds are dropped in and covered with a little perlite. I'm keeping my fingers crossed but so far everything is doing great. 

I have room for 4 or 5 trays under the lights. Come the first of March I will need all the space.